TRS to stage ‘Maha Dharna’ over paddy procurement
Hyderabad: Turning up the heat on the BJP at the Centre over paddy procurement, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao along with the State Cabinet Ministers, legislators, MPs and other TRS elected representatives, will stage a demonstration at Indira Park on Thursday. It would be one of the rarest occasions in the nation’s history where the […]
Hyderabad: Turning up the heat on the BJP at the Centre over paddy procurement, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao along with the State Cabinet Ministers, legislators, MPs and other TRS elected representatives, will stage a demonstration at Indira Park on Thursday.
It would be one of the rarest occasions in the nation’s history where the Chief Minister of a State, would be sitting for a protest against the Centre’s partisan attitude.
The Chief Minister on Tuesday appealed to the Union government to give clarity on its paddy procurement policy to end confusion over paddy being purchased from Telangana. On Wednesday, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention on the issue and come out with an annual procurement well ahead.
The Maha Dharna will be organised from 11 am to 2 pm at Dharna Chowk next to Indira Park. Later, the TRS leaders led by the Chief Minister will meet Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Bhavan and submit a memorandum, seeking her intervention on the issue. Unless the Centre responds on the issue before the weekend, the State government will come out with a policy decision and is likely to ask farmers to cultivate alternative crops during the upcoming Yasangi (Rabi) season. It may not procure paddy from farmers for the season, without any assurances from the Food Corporation of India or the Union government in this regard.
Meanwhile, elaborate arrangements are being made for the TRS Maha Dharna at Dharna Chowk. Finance Minister T Harish Rao and Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav visited the venue on Wednesday to oversee the arrangements. The party leadership has already obtained necessary permissions from the authorities concerned considering the Model Code of Conduct as well as the Covid-19 guidelines.
“TRS will stage the demonstration in solidarity with our farmers and demand the Centre to come out with a paddy procurement policy. Until the Union government responds, the TRS will continue to mount pressure through peaceful demonstrations in a democratic manner,” Harish Rao told mediapersons. He asserted that while sitting in the Opposition or ruling the State, TRS had always fought on behalf of people of Telangana.
He reminded that the TRS staged similar protests when the Union government unilaterally merged seven mandals of erstwhile Khammam district along with Lower Sileru Power Plant in Andhra Pradesh. “We are fighting on behalf of farmers and for their welfare, but not fighting against the Union government. Farmers too would join our protests tomorrow and together, we are confident of brining it to a logical conclusion,” he added.
Also read: CM KCR writes to PM Modi, seeks clarity on paddy procurement
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